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Petrello "Petey" DePeplesham
Player: Gehrig Age: 39 Lifepaths: City Born, Moneylender, Merchant, Magnate Affiliations: Representative of Westgate, political ploc, able to hide away with the Oromo (show copper hospitality symbol; disc the size of a large coin), Inixian nationalist front, voice of proletarian revolution in Crowstead, Master of Coin to Greymist and Amelia Morel, Advisor to the King House colors: gold, royal purple, midnight blue 29 CoH One of the best Dwarven flintlock pistols ever made, specially commissioned Wife: Hermione Valois Magical Daughter currently cooking Bodyguards: MacCasland and Medvedev Enemies: Lady Cordelia Aragon "I am the elected representative of Westgate. I believe in democracy...ostensibly...and I will more or less act in the best interests of my constituents." -to Boris Alexiyevich Gusov, on the politics of the King "Boris, you useless motherfucker. You want to do well by your people? Take the helm. You want democracy? Democracy without a foundation is tyranny. It’s mob rule. It’s splintered Bratva bullshit. You unified them. But unlike then, you have a wholly captive audience now. You’re a folk hero. Prove your people right." -to Boris, on assuming the mantle of power in Ruthinia Beliefs, Instincts, and Traits Beliefs # We are headed out into the Wasteland! ("50 years," take a shot.) The first thing we need to do is find a community of relative size to incorporate into the dealings of the LAWN to the extent that they act as an outpost against whatever horrors may come forth within their reach. As the de fact representative of the King, I will need to foster good will and broker a good political deal, with the promise of reinforcements, of course. # Exploring and making new contacts is nice, but we still have the Monk of the Eben Dawn to worry about. while in our travels, we need to gather information on what those in the Wasteland know about that dick. The opening of political alliances in the Wasteland means that we can group together and remove one of our older existential threats so we can focus on the new unholy terrors. # We need to talk to the more useful portion of the New Cerulean leadership about the LAWN and the benefits thereof. Speaking on official behalf of the King, I'll lay out the benefits of joining, and point out additionally that being the first member of the LAWN's Fence will confer additional leadership and business opportunities. I'm sure offering a business deal with me as a starter may start to intrigue them. # Ernest Jonsland is here in New Cerulea. Azazel is infiltrating, and the plan of attack is to kill him, let Azazel take his face, and have him and me run guns in Jonsland's stead. First, we'll need to interrogate him on what he knows of the Eben Dawn, having worked with Black Briar. I'd sure love to put some marks on his bigoted face. Corrupt capitalism, gunrunning to suicide cults, and homophobia are one thing, but being mean to me? Unforgivable. Beliefs (resolved) Boris' dickishness makes me want to avoid Ruthinia as a money haven, but these pirate folks seem to have it going on. I need to learn more of their ways by helping out onboard Cpt. Barbossa's ship. Imagine the potential of my resources plus their shipping channels. The Treeborn are fiercely independent, but Crowstead needs good, immediately actionable relations with them. We have too many Wasteland-related concerns to not have a mutually beneficial arrangement. My guess is they want a greater emphasis on conservation, but I'll see what they want and stress the importance of this particular connection to the King, talking up Azazel as the head of the task force. Additionally, I'd like to introduce the Yarvanese to the general population and make sure things go smoothly. With a bit of propaganda spin, they're the adorable underdogs that only bigots would cast shade upon, and I'll be the first one to establish their economic and political ties to the Valley, Crowstead especially. We're all going to the Moot. My goal is to position myself as the key financial go-to for any blending of the markets and investments; I'll be focusing on the Dwarven/Ruthinian connection, noting to the Dwarves that I was the one who retrieved their treasured heirlooms from the Rusanov vaults and am invested in their long-term well-being and the respectful mutual sharing of culture and assets. My marriage proposal to Hermione Valois went neutrally; she wasn't quite ready yet. But now that I'm the voice of the people in Crowstead, advisor to the King, and a veritable war hero, I imagine she'll receive my ring more enthusiastically now. I'll propose, offer her my heart, and have the woman of my dreams and the continuation of the family line. What's wartime without a little love? I now have the Ruthinian stores of Dwarven treasure, as well as some additional gold, at my disposal. My next step is to personally deliver the treasure to their "rightful owners" (once I see if there's anything special I want for myself) and mention that the King sends his regards. That will help relations, and make my face known. DePeplesham clout machine is at it again! I convinced Boris to be the Ruthinian leader (and my patsy, more or less) and the main thing to worry about now is to remove the Count. The King wants him alive, annoyingly, so during my ongoing negotiations with him I'll have to come up with sufficient leverage to get him to come with us. I can't tip my hand that I knew the prisoners will be freed, so what I might have to do is point out that Crowsteadian citizens and economy are already planting roots in his lands (oopsie on that last one) and that his power has already left him irretrievably. Better to live in capture than drawn and quartered in the streets. I will need to seek an audience with the King as soon as I get back to Ruthinia. We helped Gardinians 2 and 8, yes, but Flametongue has escaped Azazel's care (after conveniently killing off Johnny-Tron, granted) and is likely already with one of the three chromatic dragons on the mountains to the northwest, which he should really know about immediately. They can't harm us inside the Barrier, but he needs to know what now lurks beyond our walls. Whether I throw Azazel under the bus remains to be seen. The King has asked me to monitor the warfront in Ruthinia. He wants a Parliamentary eye, and I speak the language and am generally well-liked by the Ruthinian people and leadership. Time to gather some intel and see Boris' allegiance toward me when push comes to shove. ----I WON THIS WITH A DUEL OF WITS BOIIIII The Ruthinian-available Motherfuckers, myself included for some reason, are off to help the Gardinians while we have the Count kettled up. Something about Orcs and songs of plants. But more pertinent to me, this will help secure political ties with Gardinians, Dwarves, and Treeborn. I'd sure like my name attached to such a venture. The Icefang fallout in Greymist has left the government in complete disarray. As Master of Coin, I'm going to suggest to the King that we more completely merge Greymist into the Crowstead government, patchover-style. I will oversee the transition, as Her Grace Morel is rather poor at this sort of thing, and perhaps fill the new local governance with DePeplesham-friendly patsies if I'm given appropriate vetting control. That'll make another good hidey-hole, legally speaking. Once we reach Yervin, I'm going to try to win the people over. Who knows what they think of Laucus? He'll answer for his crimes, and I'll make sure the Yervinians know that the barrier will be reinstated around them as well as the Valley as a whole. (Whether or not this is actually feasible doesn't matter--I'll have a good scapegoat lined up by then). I'll turn them over to our side, and then we'll be safe and DePeplesham will have a new playground. So, before my Dim ragtag group goes spelunking, we're gonna go fuck up Laucus. Let's get that barrier back. It'll give us some protection and buy us enough time to establish an escape route and good Voltanican diplomatic relations. And also, fuck Laucus. With a rusty gauntlet. With fire magicite. Fuck him. I've volunteered to Gendry to go into the Dim with a contingency of approximations of troops not currently fighting elsewhere in order to establish safe passageway for citizens should we find the need to flee. We need a safe way to get our citizens to the Voltanicans, and Amelia Morel (with Pennybun) will be an excellent scouting partner. Azazel would be too, but fuck knows where or who he is. I'll hire a group of bodyguards and brawlers to go adventuring with the promise of history knowing them as explorers, as well as potentially finding some valuable loot, and we'll forge our way to the embracing arms of the Voltanicans if need be. Now that we know the entry points to the Dim throughout the city, I will propose to Gendry that any exploratory efforts to retrieve doppelgänger brains and ancient/magic tech need also be scouting for hideyholes for the people of Crowstead. We will relatedly need to keep the locations a secret; perhaps Ancient Crowsteadian would be a good language to keep the records in. Archivists and I will be able to communicate with the constabulary to shepherd people around as we need to. The Voltanicans will ferry them to safety if nothing else. The House of the Loyal Hound have asked me to lay off swaying the public, except to encourage them to report unknown Dim entrances to the Crown. I'll just note that this is related to the war research effort, which I've secured as an almost universally agreed-upon goal. But Gendry let slip something about me long-term learning the tenets of the Loyal Hound, which means that I may have a way into some pretty spicy Royal influence and knowledge. I'm sure there are checks against people like me, but if I am able to join the House, imagine the new level of classified information and powers I'll have access to. I still need to contact Amelia Morel to ascertain the best strategy to deal with, and potentially nuke from orbit, the thorn in humanity's side known as Icefang. The House of the Loyal Hound have demanded it as well, so it's not like this can't be on the top of my list. I still say we need to get her guns on board Cantello's airships and launch an aerial assault while the dragon is distracted on the ground. I have effectively declared myself the voice of Crowstead. The populace are with me 150% re:researching and the war effort. I'm going to institute an opt-in tax with donation tiers, such as naming public places in the donors' honor, in order to inspire a progressively funded war effort. Parliament will be meeting soon. Having the influence with the King and the market (and Boris) that I do, I'll be taking a leading role in the proceedings. I'll have to convince the rest of the MPs to go along with the martial law that the King has declared; I still don't fully trust him in the long run, but A) it'll be the best way to make sure we defend the Valley properly, and B) it'll make me seem more of a loyalist to the Crown, which will help my reputation on that front. The White Dragon, Icefang, is ransacking Greymist. As Master of Coin, I have an obligation to protect the city to the minimum extent of the law. I'm going to lean on the King so he gets the Royal Guard over there posthaste. Good PR of course, but I can't be the puppet-master if my marionette strings are being ice-breathed into rubble. War is upon us. Azazel killed Black Briar, but the Ruthinians, who attacked in league with her, are at the door. I will speak to Amelia about moving her newly acquisitioned machine guns on board Cantello's airships, and insist that Azazel kill Jonsland soon so we can requisition his foundries and gunrunning operation. Short-term and long-term solutions, in that order. I have a personal matter to attend to. It's been a few months of courting, and I'm ready to pop the question to Hermione. I'll pick out the most Noble-worthy ring possible and get hitched! I've successfully convinced the King of Crowstead to go to war with the ruling Rusanov family of Ruthinia. Unfortunately, Boris pointed out to me that he's got something dangerous up his sleeve, especially given the revelation that his sister is apparently still alive. I'll have another chat with the King about the war effort and conscription, but I'll also be talking more with Boris to see what he knows. Boris has invited me to a meeting in the middle of the woods in an abandoned house. I'll have to insist that Azazel join me in disguise at a bodyguard so he can protect me if Boris or Laucus try anything. Boris and Laucus found out about my market-crashing scheme, but I've gotten Boris on my side. He's sworn to keep the Valois debt off my plate, and he and I seem to have a scheme pending. I'll talk to him and see what we can arrange; relatedly, I don't know what to do about Laucus. This might require a Zak solution, if he gets his ass in gear for once. What am I paying him for, anyway? Cordelia Aragon threw a drink in my face at Boris' party, in full view of Hermione Valois. I think it time to get the rumor mill churning; I will be explaining to everyone at the party why exactly my makeup is so messed up (without fixing it of course), with Hermione's backup. I'll turn the other houses against that bitch, mark my words. Boris suggested that I try to marry into House Valois. I'll arrange a meeting with them, and see if I can come to Boris' party with Hermione Valois herself on my arm. It will piss off Aragon...at Valois. If I'm not bringing the market crashing down, maybe I can rip a hole in the House politic. I haven't been attending to my future-husband duties. Young Lady Aragon will be at the party, and I'll need to start preparing a honeymoon that will... take her breath away. Obviously, if she drops dead right after we get hitched, I'll be the first suspect, so I'm going to start preemptively leading a trail away from me now. I'll get Azazel to stage a sloppy assassination attempt against her and frame another royal family, maybe the Valois. She will survive, of course, but it will establish a pattern that should keep eyes away from me. Another royal house bitter that House Aragon married a burgher? Seems like a good motive. Nills, the archivist who is working with me in the Depository, has presented me with a document that shows that my family owes roughly 20 million Doles to the Valois family. This document, according to my father's records, is actually legitimate, and far worse, the Crown will soon about it thanks to the archivist's goddamn sense of duty. I can't off him easily, as he could very well be a member of the House of the Loyal Hound. Same reason I can't bribe him. I think I'll have to use my new political position, as well as my accounting skills, to blow some smoke up peoples' asses; I remember there was a number-crunching machine in the Dim, and if I can hire Xavier Cantello to help restore it upon recovery, I'll create so many financial inquests to my House that they won't have the man-hours to enforce mine until I can pay off the Valois on my own time under the table. Settling the family debts will hurt my pocketbook, but it'll be one less piece of bullshit hanging over my and my father's heads. (PS: I'll have to make sure that my father converts liquid assets to precious metals right before I send them in, as the economy might get a bit screwy for a while.) Boris is throwing a big shindig. I'm obviously going to be making an appearance, and hob-nobbing with the other VIPs about the Valley. I'll pull Boris aside and see the extent to which he wants to divest his less savory assets. I could use some more cash flow in these trying times, and buying some investments wholesale and selling them off piecemeal will help facilitate that. I might put the pressure on him by recounting him some details of his Roxanne divorce fraud I overheard from the closet, and pass it off as him having holes in the security of his assets that are holding him back. Zak has, as expected, declined the Count's offer to kill Boris. I have the decree from the Count, and I think my best bet is to bring it to the King and inform him that the Ruthinian executive head is trying to kill Nobles under the king's rule, and that ignoring it would be highly problematic for PR. I'll also mention the lack of popular support for the Count in Ruthinia; long story short, let's coup those Ruthkies and establish a pro-Crowstead, pro-business puppet government. The Count of Ruthinia has tasked me with hiring an assassin against Boris. I'll run this by Azazel and see what he thinks. Do we defraud the Count? If so, we'll need a way to fool him with a fake body. Do we actually get Boris killed? If so, we'll have to figure out a way to not have the Fruits and Bratva after us. I'll pitch the contract to Azazel and leave it open-ended, and we'll go from there. I've given Zak the info he needs to kill the Fruits. It is public knowledge that I am working with Fruit documents to help solve the murder, so I'll need to figure out a way to distance myself if necessary, because I might be a suspect. I'll need to go over the documents and see who's easiest to frame as a mole. Officer Vaughan MacShane is my first thought; Internal Affairs has been up his ass, and his finances are... poor. It shouldn't be hard to forge a paper trail that incriminates him. I've offered the King my free services as an archival accountant for the ancient documents in the Depository. I will be running numbers and analyzing the financial state of each party mentioned, many of whom have living descendants/organizations today. I have to turn everything over to the Crown, but I have a sharp memory--I bet I can memorize some kompromat and keep it in my pocket as leverage for when I get my political career off the ground, now that I am again above the ground. Zak has asked me to find information on two Inixian cops he needs to kill, O'Shawnny and Roiland. I will offer my services to the chief of law enforcement to look at officers' demographic information (including addresses of course), payments, assets, etc. to "streamline" the process and aid the investigation against the cop killer that is plaguing my beautiful city and causing my constituents to live in fear. Once I know the pertinent information for Zak, I will funnel that to him and wash my hands of those two in particular. This should also be a good PR stunt, you know, me helping the local do-good constables and whatnot. I'm getting into politics and Noble concerns now, and accordingly, House DePeplesham needs an enforcement arm. Put simply, I want a skilled assassin who knows the Faceless on retainer. I plan to hire Azazel indefinitely; first stop Jonsland, next stop anyone else who gets in my way. With my scheming and his disguise-y, knife-y ways, we will be unstoppable. I would like some more time to pore through these old contracts and deeds. Before we leave the palace, I will offer the kings' representatives my services in accounting free of charge in order to compile the information and turn it all over to royal authorities. It would be enough just to know some noble and corporate weak points. Now that I've secured the Thistle Sisters' cash cache, we'll need to get it out without attracting Oromo attention. Finding another way out would be ideal. We'll have to keep pressing ever onward--my hunch is that we'll have to go deeper before we can discover a new passageway out. We're currently seeking the Library under the Dim. I've always been the bookish type, and I imagine there's some valuable information down there, maybe even some kompromat vis-a-vis lineages and financial contracts. I'll be seeking these out in particular so that I can sell off, or maybe blackmail, some nobles and burghers. Maybe it'll give me a leg up on House Aragon. Azazel's dragon is a hotheaded dick who lusts after gold and human flesh. I possess an abundance of both gold and enemies; if I convert some of my assets to gold and give the dragon a bachelor pad, I could present Wifey Aragon the vaults, with my "delicate security system"... a hungry dragon. Hello inheritance, goodbye schemes of murderous mother-in-law. And that's only the beginning; with a dragon to then dispose of, I'll finance a quest with payment being the gold I gave Flametongue. I get good PR, Noble status, and hopefully a net gain in assets to boot. Classic DePeplesham move. Boris made an offer to Flametongue that he likely can't follow through on. I may have to give him a bit of a payday loan. Surely keeping on the better side of a dragon is worth some underworld or real estate assets...I could use a popular tavern as a money laundering operation. I've managed to slip my Doppelgänger bonds once, and I tried to throw hands at the guard who was keeping us down. I need to be smarter next time: the first thing I'm doing if I manage to slip out again is to free the guard. If I can't free my bonds, I'll have to distract the guard so that the Royals have enough unsupervised time to escape themselves. They're our best bet to topple the doppel and get out of here. Ernest Jonsland once showed me his ass-cheek tattoo of an ancient secret rune denoting a secret cache of weaponry, supposedly pre-Apocalypse. He's always been a history buff, so I have no reason to suspect its authenticity. I'll be keeping an eye out for this rune down here in case it leads me to the fabled magitech weaponry vault. That would be a good way to ingratiate myself with the Crown, if not make some extra cash. My first goal in the Dim is to survive. Beyond that, I'm looking for two things: ungodly sums of money, and things that can be exchanged for ungodly sums of money. I've heard about some magical doodads down here, especially in the deeper places. I'm sure there's an armory filled with valuable weapons at least as nifty as that elemental rifle, and I'm sure that I can sit on some loot until I find an ideal buyer. I won't be picky about what I collect, though, as long as I make off like a bandit in the end. I'll face steep competition from the Oromo with finding the money caches. Many bandits and smugglers have hidden their loot down here, including the recently deceased Thistle Sisters, who brought all manner of contraband in and out of the Valley. Rumor has it that the Oromo have sent spelunkers down here to find their cache, and I intend to beat them to the punch. Rockwell MacArthur, one of my bodyguards, is being blackmailed by persons unknown, and he's being annoyingly tight-lipped. He did mention that it's an underground player in Greymist, so it's likely a problem he picked up pretty recently. I'll have to investigate and deal with this so that my team can be as clear-headed as possible, especially since it's election season.-->dead, resolved by default There are rumors among the nobles of gold stashes hidden in the Dim. I can't trust my underlings to deal with this without my presence, and although sneaking onto that drunkard Beevitch's property unnoticed won't be difficult, a caravan of spelunkers might draw too much outward attention. I suppose my guards and I are down for some adventure--what's the worst that can happen? House Aragon probably wants to kill me anyway, and I could stand to get a little more money off the books. Now to get my adventuring gear properly tailored... I overheard at the tail end of a meeting an interesting tidbit from Ruthinian Southgate representative Grzegorz "Beevitch" Brzęczyszczykiewicz. He whispered to his aide about "securing his room in the deep place." After looking over what the public records say about his residence, there is an expunged bit of a document that mentions "a sealed opening, the tampering of which is Highly Illegal." I can put two and two together; his gaudy little bungalow must be built on an entryway to the Dim. I'll have to bribe some city contractors to explore the property and locate it. --> We got lured in by Rakshasa before we could scope it out. Welp... I'm going to accompany Boris on his hangman's walk to Ruthinia. I've recently made a good Ruthinian merchant contact, and I'd like a bigger piece of the Ruthinskiy pie. The Count himself, according to Boris, has been skimming money off the top; I'm going to try to convince him to hire my book-cooking services, for a reasonable commission of course. I'll need to make things up with House Aragon. I'm pretty sure my marriage chances are irrevocably fucked, but I at least need to smooth things over and reconcile if I can. I will pledge my service to the house and do their bidding should they request it. I'm pulling comfortably ahead in the polls, but it's possible that Valitova could make the stars align in her favor. I'll need to keep stumping, and probably need to grease some rich wheels a little further in Northgate and greater Crowstead if I'm to secure things. I'll need to find some older money to hobnob with, and hopefully make a good impression. Amelia and I are going to have to get some of the Valmen on our side. As Master of Coin, I've been facilitating the publicizing of assets to entice them financially; we need to go and talk to them and propose an offer that they can't...well...shouldn't refuse. Ernest has been selling weapons to Black Briar. Good luck tearing him away from such a lucrative contract; that man makes *me* look like a saint. Ernest and I are going to be co-funding "the King's army," as he calls it, so let's see if I can't loosen up his lips after a while and get him to change contracts. If not, I may have to have him dealt with--maybe ZakZazel has an opening? My attempts to contact Azazel showed me that most of my criminal contacts have dried up. R.I.P. Arbor and Huntington. I don't want to just be limited to Boris for my criminal element, especially since he's too busy being whatever volatile ruler he fashions himself as this week. But I'll need to keep him close. Why don't I start meeting regularly with him in his bar, now that he and Roxanne have smoothed things over? I'll learn more about him, get him less paranoid toward me, and if I prove to him that I can help him out, I can start networking through his Bratva folks. Added bonus: this gives me a bit of a Ruthinian edge, which would help me get to know my hopefully future Northgate constituents.On the subject of Ernest, I think Amelia and her leafborne friends are going to prove quite useful. She and I need to have a sit-down and coordinate those buddies of hers--what motivates them? Money? Do they want weapons? Because they're about to get a shitload. If they ambush Ernest's out-of-town shipments and cinch off Black Briar's main weapons supply, that will give them what they want, slow down BB, and keep the conflict out of our borders for that much longer. I've been bettering myself over the last few months and working on my political influence. How am I going to rectify the differences between myself and Amadeus if we're working together, especially since Valitova is ostensibly a better fit for that naïve hippy? I'm giving my big speech soon, and I'll need to make sure I bring enough fence-sitters to my side. In order to impress the Northgate voting populace, I'll shuttle the money I've earned from my new Greymist assets to Northgate and invest in some profitable "public works." That money will go back to my holdings in Greymist, of course; whether it happens after November or after a few years depends on how the election goes. I will contact Ernest Jonsland, an old financial affiliate from my days at the markets. He's a weapons dealer who specializes in bulk transactions, and rumor has it he has a new exclusive contract with Blackbriar. Given our history, I should be able to butter him up enough to buy an in with her and get a sense of what she wants from him with all those weapons. Good ol' Ernest never operates without a local insider, which means someone in Blackbriar's chain of command has to be somewhere in Crowstead. Let's see if I can't nip that in the bud. I managed to get my hands on some juicy Greymist business, with a connection to Amelia Morel to boot. I'm going to have to help her sell some of the assets she acquired in the coup to their "rightful owners," as she says, in order to further the connection between our families and establish goodwill. After all, if things don't work out in Northgate, Papa Shep and I could always use a backup financial romping ground. I will coordinate a search with the pro-Morel rebel faction to find the true heir to Greymist. Should I encounter her, I will help to reinstate her in order to keep the line-of-succession paradigm functional. I have given Boris my family's contact information if he should find himself in Northgate. The next step for me is to offer financial protection and potential investments into his whoremongering from the less savory family accounts--after we finish our coup, of course. For the time being, because we're handling different aspects of the liberation, it is imperative that we not be seen together, just in case. I will use whatever means I can--including extortion if necessary--to infiltrate Greymist law enforcement and develop a list of suspected pro-Morel rebels. Under the guise of Northgate-nobility-backed interrogation, I will offer financial backing to these rebels in exchange for secrecy and influence in the government that would rise from the ashes. The Vals likely haven't invested in proper document security. It occurs to me that I could doctor the deeds, charters, and other such documents to ensure that Morel's right to rule can be legally proven enough to win the fence-sitters among the general populace. If I can spin it such that the Vals are blamed for sabotaging the local government, this will help advance my political career if I'm seen as a whistle-blower. That Greymist thing just went topsy-turvy. I'll need to contact Papa Shep and see where he's at with this--what exactly am I to do to minimize damage here? I get the feeling I'm going to have to burn a little social grace to cover up my part in the chaos. Instincts # There's no deal I can't spin in my favor, no matter how stacked against me. # I always try to be at the service of all my betters--you never know how political tides will change. # Reputations are helpful, but it's better to be the puppet-master. Traits * Self-Satisfied 1 * Callous 1 * Lavish Taste 1 * Affinity for Business 1 * Greedy 1 * Mind for Small Details 2 Artha Fate: 18 Persona: 10 Deeds: 2 Stats & Attributes 9M 13P p.42 Wounds Skills Gear, Contacts, Reputations, Spells Contacts: Reputation: Spells: Skills Being Learned Category:PC